


Home

by Kirkland_Bonnefoye78



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 22:34:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16880508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirkland_Bonnefoye78/pseuds/Kirkland_Bonnefoye78
Summary: Alice finds another home.





	Home

Alice ran, her heart in her throat and blood rushing in her ears. She can feel her lungs screaming for oxygen, her legs straining, her vision slowly darkening. But, still, she ran. Fear clouds her mind and settles heavily in her guts, but she runs. She wants to cry, to stop, to simply let her pursuers take her and die... But she runs instead.

  
_"Run, Al, be safe."_

She can almost hear her brother say it. She can almost feel his lips ghosting over her ears, his breath warm. Can almost feel the tears falling on her hair, the shaking of his arms around her. Can almost feel his heart beating against his chest, feel the way his shoulder tremble with fear. Can almost hear the defiant shout of her mother, the closet wall against her back. She can almost taste the fear on the air, the nervousness and desperation.

  
She hates it.

  
Today was supposed to be a great day, supposed to be her day. Everything was already ready, she just needs to finish the ritual, and then she'll be a proper witch. She would've been able to fight, able to protect her family, able to fight back against the invaders. Why today? Why can't it be tomorrow or- or _never_! Damn it.

  
A sob tores through her lips as she stumbled on a root. She gasps when her broken arm was hustled, and she came tumbling down the slope.

  
Her heads something hard, and she knew no more.

  
***

_"Alice!" A black-haired teenager grins, twirling her around. She let's out a laugh, excited and exhilarated. Today is the best day of her life._   
_It was a beautiful day. The sun shines warmly, the breeze cool, the trees and flowers vividly colored. Everything was ready._

  
_Alice grins, bright eyes and rosy cheeks, and knew nothing will ever go wrong._

  
_\----_

_She was wrong._

  
_She watches as the door to their home break down from the closet, her big brother covering her mouth, his back on the door. Muffled sobs left her lips, tears slowly cascading on her cheeks. Her brother was shaking, tears dropping on her shoulder, and Alice trembles because if her brother, her older, braver, tougher brother, is afraid, then that means everything went horribly, despairingly wrong._

  
_And she hates it. She hates that it happened today, that she's hurt and her parents are shouting curses and casting spells-_

  
_Bang!_

_Bang!_

  
_Suddenly, the screaming stops. The shouts, the footsteps-_ everything _._

  
_Two consequent thuds echoed, and Alice looked up. Her brother's eyes glowed with rage, his breathing labored, tear tracks on his cheeks. She shivered, and let out a whimper. She never saw this kind of fury in her brother, never ever. She hated it, too._

  
_"Run, Al, be safe," he whispers against her ears, trembling with fear and rage and anticipation._   
_Her eyes widened, just as the closet door opens and she disappears in a bright light._

  
_Bang!_

  
***  
Alice sits up, panting and wide eyed. Tears blurred her vision, and everything feels numb. She's alone.

  
Alone.

  
Alone.

  
The word echoes in her brain, repeating like a broken record. Her heart feels heavy, and something is obstructing her throat. She swallows, and gasps, and coughs, but it doesn't dislodge and she can't _breathe_.

  
Alone.

  
Alone.

  
She's alone, without Mom and Dad and- and James, oh my god, her brother is gone.  
She chokes back a sob, curling up and burying her head in her arms. It's not fair. Not fair, why today? Why now? Why did it happen, why, why, why?!?

  
Alone.

  
Alice let's out a wail, another sob, and let's her emotion and magic ran wild. She can feel the wind carding through her hair, caressing her cheeks, but it's not- it's not _enough_ because-

  
Because SHE.

  
IS.

  
_ALONE_.

  
***  
Days passed. She doesn't know how long it had been, just that time passed as her body took it's time to heal. When she was strong enough, she hunts. James thought her how to survive in the forest, how to hunt, and she makes good work with it.

  
She eats rabbits, worms when she can't find anything, bugs, and small boars. She cooks roots and washes fruits. She knows it isn't healthy, it isn't good for her, that she needs to find a town and live but she doesn't know how.

  
So she makes do.

  
It was hard, and awful, and her heart feels empty aside from the flicker of rage and fear, but she's alive and that counts, right?

  
***  
"Heeellloooo??"

  
The voice echoes through the walls of Alice's cave, and she stiffens. She stops moving, stops breathing, huddles in a corner and prays she isn't noticed. But her God never listened, and the owner of the voice crouches in front of her, and she flinches. She hates being weak but she's just a child and she's so, so _afraid_ —

  
"Hey," the man, because it is a man, she's sure, says softly, and Alice looks up.

  
Bright blue eyes meets hers, glinting with curiosity and kindness. Her heart beats faster, so she bares her teeth angrily. The man jumps back, eyes wide, before smiling.

  
"It's okay," he says, showing his palms. Alice simply snarls.

  
The man sits, cross-legged, smiling and curious.

  
'He's either stupid, or brave,' Alice muses as the man starts talking.

  
***  
Peter, as the man introduced himself, comes back every other day. Again and again and again.

  
At first, Alice hated it, but... He talks. He tells her about himself, about the life she used to have, the life that was ripped away from her hands.

  
Makes her remember her brother and his bright smile as he gushes about one thing or another. Reminds her of her mother with his warm loaves and sweet, home-made jam. Reminds her of his father as he tells stories of his adventures, his beautiful, worth while, life.  
He walks around the forest to collect fresh meat and herbs for his eatery, he says.

He lives alone, just outside the forest. Not too far from the city, but not too close either. He likes potatoes, because it's delicious, and perfect. He talks about his friends, and his home, and how bright and beautiful the city is.  
He patches her wound with herbs, and tells her about magic. And Alice—

  
Alice can't help but want to come with him...  
Wants to see the green and white house he describes. Wants to meet his friends, and all the people he meets. Wants to be free of the fear, wants to be safe, wants to know that she won't go hungry because her food was taken by bigger animals or escaped. She wants to live, and properly honor her family and their sacrifice—

  
So when he smiled and offered his hand—

  
When his eyes twinkled with excitement as the sun glowed behind him—

When he whispered, determined and almost gushing, "Come with me!", she didn't think twice about reaching out and clasping his hand.

  
It was the best decision she made in the decade she had been alive.

  
***  
A few weeks later, Peter had a visitor. Or, rather, _visitors_.

  
Alice doesn't really know what to think of the two, with their conflicting personalities and harsh words, at first.

  
Drake — or Draco, as he introduced himself — is the personification of elegance all over the world. Wearing a black coat, black pants, and black shoes, there's something almost perpetually creepy about the man. Perhaps it is his too pale skin or the dark shadows under his eyes. Maybe it's the way he seems too thin, or the way his cheeks seem to suck in on itself to reveal sharp, aristocratic cheekbones. Or, and this is perhaps more likely, the way the shadows seem to clung at the tail end of his coat, seem to twist around his shoulder, the way darkness seem to follow his very steps and making his red eyes glow bright. Maybe it's the perpetual scowl on his lips and the furrowed dark eyebrows, and maybe it's all of these, or maybe it's all in Alice's head, but she acknowledges that if vampires are as real as her brother says, then Drake would've been one.

  
(She doesn't realize how right she was until she's staring at red eyes and white fangs ready to tear apart the men who almost hurts her.)

  
Lyall, on the other hand, was as bright as the sun and as gentle as a mother with her first born. It's adorable, she thinks, how much he fusses about Drake, yet insults him with the same breathe. He wears huge fur coats and leather boots with his pants inside. His bare chest is littered with thousands of battle scars — battle for what, she did not know, and will never ask. Despite his imposing figure — because he IS imposing with his huge muscled arms, tanned chest, six pack abs and impressive 8' height — the man is a gentle giant. His warm brown eyes seem to look at everything with unabashed curiosity and glee, seemingly finding joy in every little thing. He was scary at first, but after awhile Alice finds him too adorable to even be a threat. He's like a dog, except much more wise and sweeter in a way dogs rarely are.

  
(She stares at brown colored eyes, glowing with malice that was never directed at her and wonders how much she really doesn't know about the supernatural.)

  
***  
That night, Alice curls up in her chair while the other two sat back to back, with Peter spread wide on the carpet, and asks about how they met. Drake smiles, fond and exasperated, and starts to talk.

  
"It was an awful night, raining cats and dogs to the point we can't see anything anymore. I was wet, and cold, and so is this giant idiot," the tone was dry but his eyes shows amusement that makes Alice want to laugh, because how oblivious can vampires be?

  
"He keeps complaining too," Lyall chirps, something she thought she'll never hear from a man his size, "so I offered my coat! He didn't like that..."

  
"Offered?!?" Is the indignant reply, followed by, "you threw it all over me and I fell!!! I was _wet_ , _cold_ , and then I can't _see_ a thing!"

  
"Well, it's not my fault if you're so clumsy!"

  
"I'm not clumsy in any way, you bastard, I'm practically the representation of elegance and beauty!"

  
By this time, the two are already facing each other, forehead to forehead and glowering. Peter coughs, eyes twinkling with amusement, and says as drily as he can — which is a lot because, duh, he's freaking British — "If the two of you are done arguing like an old married couple, I believe my charge is asking how we met."

  
Alice covers her snort with a cough, barely suppressing her snickers. When the two turns to give the speaker a scarily similar indignant look, she gives in to her urges and giggles helplessly. The three stares at her with confusion, before realization dawns on their faces. Peter's grin could've outshine the sun, she muses, with how bright it is. _Adorable_.

  
"Whatever," Drake scowls, looking away with flushed cheeks, "anyway, it's an awful night. The coat WAS warm, but we were wet. So I pulled this jerk under the roof of the first establishment I saw. Which, fortunately, is Peter's eatery, and is still open despite it raining. He finds us huddling—"

  
"—snuggling—"

  
"—on the corner and feeds us some food. He brings us to his home and instructs us to wait until the storm passes. Which it did after three days... Right?" He continues talking as if Lyall didn't interject, ending with looking at Peter with raised eyebrows.

  
Peter nods, sipping his Earl Grey calmly. Lyall pouts from beside Peter's armchair, where he moved after his... uh, _argument_ with Drake.

Alice hums, smiling. She glances questioningly at Peter, whose lips twitches slightly. It was quick, but enough to answer her question. She wishes this two the best, for they'd need it with how much they argue.

  
***  
Two months after their visit, a goddess sent from the heavens arrives.

  
Lucille, who prefers to be called Lucy, is the most beautiful lady Alice ever met. Which, admittedly, isn't a lot. Doesn't change the fact that she has this ethereal look down to a T. Her tanned skin seems to glow whenever some sort of light shines on her, and her full lips doesn't need to be painted to be just the right shade of red. Freckles decorates her rosy cheeks and her cute, upturned nose. Her hair is the color of leaves in autumn before they fall from trees, or perhaps maple leaves from Canada. But, Alice thinks, the most beautiful feature she have is her eyes. Bright, emerald-green eyes, glowing with mischief and power, matched with thick eyelashes that girls are rarely given. And if she looks closely enough, she could almost see fleckles of gold, swirling and twirling and mixing with the green.

  
The lady — angel? Goddess? Elf? All seems too small a comparison compared to the beauty she possess — moves gracefully, her lean body unhindered by her breasts. Her white dress clings to her curves, ending at her knees. Her lips are always pulled into an almost smile, not quite a grin nor a smirk.

  
Enchanting, exquisite, elegant and a million other things could be used to describe her — and still won't be enough.

  
At least, that's what Alice thinks at first. But as they walk down the local market place and Lucy stuffs her face with various foods that should probably taste disgusting if mixed but she obviously loves, Alice can't help but think that Lucy is anything but elegant, at least not in the way Drake is. When Lucy kicks the asses of a few rude men, Alice decides it doesn't matter, not when Lucy eats like a pig yet somehow makes it look elegant and kicks asses as gracefully as she walks.

  
(Her first impression is irony at it's finest, Alice thinks with a laugh as she watches Lucy bare her fanged teeth and attacked with her sharp tail. Horns protruded above her forehead, her green eyes glowing red. Irony, indeed.)

  
***  
Later, she asks how Lucy met Peter, the lady laughs brightly and grins as if knowing a secret Alice will never know.

  
"I was being chased," the lady murmurs wistfully, eyes far, far away, "by men and women I hope you'll never meet. They were very dangerous, so avoid them if you can.

  
"I was very weak then, and very lost, with nothing on my name aside from a dress that barely covers my modesty. I was afraid, and disillusioned with the world. I thought humans were evil and vile creatures, and I was almost killed for that belief with no one trying to correct it. But then this man comes, with a smile comparable to the sun and eyes littered with stars, lending a helping hand that I didn't know how to accept. A hand I still don't believe I deserve, but really isn't given a choice," the last sentence was said with amusement, but Peter frowns and looks at Lucy in the eyes with sadness that makes something inside Alice _hurt_.

  
The lady simply laughs and tilts her head, a knowing smile on her face, and Alice knows that the two of them could've been something if Lucy isn't too afraid — of what, she didn't know and never wants to know.

  
Alice can't help but wish that Lucy stops being scared so she can stay with them.

  
But Lucy leaves after a month and a half, just like Drake and Lyall, and she wonders if that's the reason why Peter seems so sad sometimes.

  
***  
A year and a half later, Alice is showered by glitters and feathers, and her magic attacks unconsciously.

  
A teenager named Elton was almost beheaded if not for the fact that he turns into water at the last moment. Alice trembles in fear, her heart on her throat and apologizes tearfully. The teenager laughs loudly, before patting her head and apologizes cheerfully. He proceeds to drag her around the house searching for a kitchen that she knows is on the first floor.

  
"I'm a Water Spirit," he says brightly, and Alice wonders how someone who she almost _killed_ can be so cheerful with her _beside_ him, "and big sister tried to kill me for five months before accepting to be my big sister."

  
It answers _some_ of her questions, but also raises more than she's willing to put up with.

  
***  
If Peter is the light that showed Alice the way to home, Elton is the dog that was waiting for her. It's a rather rude description, but, as Peter had said once, if the shoe fits, it fits.

  
But she digresses.

  
Elton is cheerful, almost painfully so, and his playful, blue eyes reveals more of his mischief than any physical proof Alice can gather. His lips were pinkish and thin, and is almost always pulled into a scheming grin. He's tall and lean, with long, golden-colored hair that curls just below his ears. He wears a shirt the color of sky, and shorts so brightly colored it hurts her eyes. He prefers to walk — well, he doesn't _walk_ , but _skips_ — around barefoot.

  
And, she thinks with amusement, has a sense of direction as awful as his sense of fashion.  
She likes _~~him~~_ it.

  
***  
Elton had been staying with them for two days when Alice was rudely awaken by a pounding on the front door.

  
Outside, a lady stands with a scowl on her face and a bemused man beside her. Elton pushes her — _her!_ — aside to throw himself towards the lady, screaming, "BIG SISTER!!!"

  
Alice watches as his eyes lights up from within and decides that her rude awakening is forgivable if this strangers makes Elton light up like that. This thought is reenforced when Peter comes out from the kitchen wearing a fond smile to declare breakfast.

  
***  
It turns out that the scowling lady is Anne, who is a Fire Nymph, and the man is actually an elf named Marco.

  
Anne has strawberry-colored hair and sharp, brown eyes that glares out into the world. Her lips is always pulled into a perpetual scowl, that's more cute than scary — don't tell her she said that, capiche? She doesn't want to die yet — and wears a darkly colored dress that seems to make her tanned skin glow.

  
Marco, on the other hand, is an elegant fellow — almost like Drake is, but in a /lighter/ way. His hair is a bright, orange color, and has golden, slitted eyes. His smile is bright, but sad in a way that makes Alice wonder if something bad had happened to them. If she looks closely, she could almost see a thin line that goes around his neck, and assumes that it has something to do with the way Anne seems to be overprotective of him.

  
The two of them are very loud too, as she discovers late that night.

She likes them marginally lesser than she likes dresses, she decides, and she likes dresses a _lot_.

  
She also would've like them more if they didn't make her stay awake the whole night and made her late for school.

  
(When she asks how they met, Peter doesn't answer and wears such a sad and bitter smile that she never asks again.)

  
***  
They stayed for a year and a half, until Marco was called by some higher up to do something Alice isn't allowed to know. Elton leaves with them, and she finds it sad — up until the cute little shit presses a kiss against her cheek, then she's just embarrassed.

  
***  
A week later, Alice sees how kind-hearted Peter is for the first time. Not that she ever doubted it, but it's awe-inspiring when seen at work.

  
The snow leopard cub's pack was killed by a bunch of rogue hunters, and one of her feet was injured badly. Peter patiently nurses the cub back to life, and when Alice finds out that she would've been her familiar if not for _The Incident_ , she begs Peter to let her keep the cub. He agreed, so long as she takes care of it.  
She names the majestic cat Rage, and she stays with her for forever.

  
***  
When Alice turned fifteen, an evil, mad scientists kidnaps her.

  
Doctor Vladimir was a scary man, with his long, black, and greasy hair and crooked nose. His eyes are like coals, black and dull and lifeless. His hands are always trembling with barely suppressed tears, and most of the time Alice hears him mutter about saving his child. She stares at him with sad, sad eyes, because she knows what it's like to lose the only family they have.

  
She finds him scary, yes, but she pities him more.

  
(Would she have been like him if Peter never found her? Half-mad and snivelling, kidnapping people to bring back what once was her?)

  
(Would she have been like him, unkept and teary eyed, half driven by rage that sits heavily in her guts?)

  
(Would she have been like him, tired and waiting to die?)

  
(Would she have been like him, bitter and dull-eyed, performing established routines that seems so lifeless now?)

  
***  
She meets a winged man in the cage Doctor Vlad kindly provides her.

  
His names was James.

  
His head was covered by a mop of thick, black hair and eyes so brown it could've been black.  
He has a bitter, bitter smile and eyes burning with the injustice of the world.

  
He reminds her of another James, with thick, black hair and almost black eyes, and wonders if the Fates are playing with her.

  
***  
Peter, Rage, Drake and Lyall storms the laboratory, with snarls on their lips and rage in their eyes. They tear apart the cages while Lucy, Anne, Marco and Elton frees her and James.

  
Doctor Vladimir, with eyes shining bright with madness, separates her from her family and points a double-sided gun towards her.

  
"When I pull the trigger," he says slowly, trembling with fear and rage and madness, "you will die, and so will I."

  
He pulls the trigger, and Alice is frozen by the fear she feels. She can almost hear Peter and Elton screaming her name, but it's covered by the pounding of her heart in her ears and she's going to _die_ —

  
White, fluffy wings surrounds her at the same time as well muscled arms does, and all she sees is a pair of brown orbs burning with rage she had only seen once, and for a brief minute she sees another teenager with the same eyes and the same hair hugging her, looking at her as if she was the light on his otherwise dreary life, carrying rage for the world who had dared to cause her pain. Then the winged James tucks her hair behind her ears, saying, _"Live, Al, live for me."_

  
It mixes up with the words, _"Run, Al, be safe."_ , and she let's out a cry that makes the building shake even as the teen gives a grin that reveals white teeth stained with red.

  
(How cruel is the world to give her her brother back only to rip him away once more?)

  
(How cruel is life to dangle her another chance but never give it to her? )

  
***  
Later that night, after they had buried Doctor Vlad and the winged James who is not, and will never be her brother, Alice lies between Elton and Peter, with Rage spread out across their laps. Anne and Marco is curled up on the couch behind her, with Lyall and Drake lying on their backs in front of them. Lucy drools on Peter's shoulders, eyes closed and snoring.

  
She glances around, and sees her new family, and smiles because this, this is her home now and she's not alone — not anymore. James, both her brother and the winged man, are gone, yes, but because of them she found a home who will love her and fight for her.

  
Alice closes her eyes and lets sleep claim her, unaware of the two ghostly figures smiling at her, wearing the same eyes and the same thick, black hair, but without the bitterness that tainted their hearts and the rage in their eyes.

  
_It's time for them to have their peace, now._


End file.
